For all the recent fights taking place between app owners and municipalities due to owners' smartphone-based solutions to solve parking problems in major cities, not everyone appears to be on the side of the municipalities. Governments are often seen as the bad guys, and if they are not inventing new laws, they are enforcing old laws that people (smartphone users) do not like.
The City of Clarington, Ontario is looking to change that perception of parking and government officials by implementing a gtechna e-citation software that will run on Parking Enforcement officers' Android smartphones. Specifically, the city's announcement makes it known that officers will be using Samsung Galaxy S4 devices as their chosen enforcement devices. The city says the software will help make its operations more efficient and hopes to pass on savings to city residents.
Anne Greentree, municipal clerk for the City of Clarington, says she is "delighted" with the new parking software and notes that officers will not be using it to purposefully write more parking tickets.
"While there's not been a large increase in ticket volume which I'm sure the public appreciates," Greentree said, "we have seen an improvement in accuracy. This means fewer voided tickets and revenue gains for the Municipality. But, those who are in the wrong, [sic] are increasingly unable to dispute an error free ticket and these gains from increased compliance can also go back to the Municipality ultimately benefiting taxpayers and public services."
Greentree goes on to note that the City has tried other solutions that did not work as well. In the vein of many businesses that seek unified communications and interoperability between devices, she says officers using smartphones can talk, text, and email on the same devices in which they issue citations. She says it results in a "more targeted approach" to dealing with parking situations.
gtechna offers software that can update itself from the cloud, recognize license plates and parking permits, and can provide an online resource for consumers to make payments or dispute citations. The company notes that the software can sync with multiple devices including smartphones and tablets, laptops and desktops, and even portable thermal printers.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
